She's eliminating the existing iteration of CPS, which up to this point has been a subdivision of DES. There's a recent scandal involving the discovery that CPS failed to investigate 6000 reports of child abuse, which is kind of a fucking big deal. (Unless you're County Sheriff, in which case people just kinda shrug and vote for you anyway.)

This doesn't mean we're not going to have an agency that investigates child abuse anymore, it just means we're going to have a new one.

Ideally, this one will be more effective than the last one.

In practice? I don't think switching one government bureaucracy out for another is going to fix the institutional problems we're looking at, which come down, as usual, to a state legislature that isn't willing to fund a goddamn thing.

PHOENIX — Ignoring pleas from business leaders, the Senate Education Committee voted 6-3 along party lines Thursday to bar Arizona from implementing the Common Core standards the state adopted four years ago.

Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, who championed SB 1310, said he believes the concept of some nationally recognized standards started out as a “pretty admirable pursuit by the private sector and governors.”

“It got hijacked by Washington, by the federal government,” said Melvin, a candidate for governor, and “as a conservative Reagan Republican I’m suspect about the U.S. Department of Education in general, but also any standards that are coming out of that department.”

Melvin’s comments led Sen. David Bradley, D-Tucson, to ask him whether he’s actually read the Common Core standards, which have been adopted by 45 states.“I’ve been exposed to them,” Melvin responded.

Pressed by Bradley for specifics, Melvin said he understands “some of the reading material is borderline pornographic.” And he said the program uses “fuzzy math,” substituting letters for numbers in some examples.

Melvin’s comments led Sen. David Bradley, D-Tucson, to ask him whether he’s actually read the Common Core standards, which have been adopted by 45 states.“I’ve been exposed to them,” Melvin responded.

Pressed by Bradley for specifics, Melvin said he understands “some of the reading material is borderline pornographic.” And he said the program uses “fuzzy math,” substituting letters for numbers in some examples.

Amazing. They're on such a steep intellectual backslide they actually deny the fucking maths that got us to the moon.

Anyway, given that my wife is an algebra teacher, this is probably a point of particular interest to my family.

But I'd give it even odds that this turns into one of those things that's such a huge embarrassment that they slink away with their tails between their legs. (Remember the Texas Republicans opposing the teaching of critical thinking?)

A heartfelt and unironic thanks to Governor Brewer. There's quite a lot I don't agree with her on, but she has my gratitude for standing up for sanity in the face of the craziest, most extreme elements of her party.